Chapter 122: Chapter One Hundred Four Overwhelming Force

As she stared at the enhanced image. A tentacle suddenly waved in front of her face. “Xeni to E-5. Xeni to E-5. You still there?”

E-5 blinked and after a moment she turned to look at Xeni. Her mouth opened. Only for Xeni to say, “No.”

“What! I hadn’t said anything yet.”

“You want to go to the homeworld in a reckless hope of reuniting with your sister. In complete disregard of your condition.”

E-5 gave her a look, “If you are referring to my pregnancy I am going to give birth in just a few hours. It will be fine.”

Xeni sighed, “And you know how that affects you.”

E-5 shifted, “Well you are the ones who wanted me to give birth to litters. So I give birth to litters. Not to mention, you promised to reunite me with big sis,” she pointed at the screen, “well there she is.”

“I know, but look what they have done to her!”

E-5 glared, “I saw! She needs me!”

“The entire place is a warzone. What if you get hurt?”

“The reporter said it herself, they aren’t killing people. I’ll be fine.”

Xeni gave her a look, “We don’t know that!”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t try. I have to go!”

“It’s too dangerous!” she paused, “Eriku try talking some sense into your counterpart.”

Eriku was startled a bit at being addressed personally. Xeni hadn’t done that in years. Normally the others pretended she wasn’t there. The only one she ever really spoke with was E-5. Well E-5 was the only person she could talk with and she had grown quite comfortable with that. She very much enjoyed the role of observer in her own body and letting E-5 have all the control. It was a moment before she told E-5, “Personally I agree. We need to go. Screw the risk.”

E-5 replied, “Yeah, but I am getting the feeling Xeni won’t allow it.”

“Maybe A-98 would be willing to help us? She is between birth cycles at the moment and isn’t hampered by a swollen belly.”

E-5 responded positively, “Yeah she might. If nothing else she has been a little bored lately. She might welcome a little adventure.”

Eriku said, “Great. Then we have a plan. So maybe you should placate Xeni?”

E-5 sighed, “I guess.”

---

He shifted on his bridge as he reviewed what data he had. They were rapidly approaching Nekuri and expecting battle. On one of his screens he had a display giving him data on the vessel he was expecting. Available sensors in the area had beamed back a little data. Giving him enough info to plan a battle plan.

The alien battleship was formidable. No notable weaknesses, a powerful array of plasma weapons, supported by drones and heavy torpedoes. Fortunately, her shields appeared to be down. That gave his battlegroup a chance. Precursor armor was formidable but not invincible. The Nekari Star Clans were famous for their cracking of a Precursor shield world and the rather unfortunate consequence. The whole plague thing was something they were still embarrassed about today generations after the fact. Of course they weren’t the only ones to attempt to crack a Shield World. They just got all the attention for actually succeeding.

He was quite glad that his people weren’t the ones to get that attention. Even if they too once came close to piercing a shield world. Engaging the Precursor guardians however, did teach his people a fair amount about the Starlords in particular. Their warships were no joke, able to wipe out entire fleets with impunity. Adaptive shielding that could rapidly regenerate from any damage and hull plating that could shrug off all but the most powerful weapons ever devised. This battleship they were about to face was also larger than ships they had previously faced, but he felt pretty good.

They had been studying precursor designs for a long time and while they didn’t have the fortune of a cache of drone weapons like the enigmatic Erisay, they had done extensive study of the weapons used by various precursor factions. Designing heavier plasma guns that could drain those shields and even penetrate precursor armor, but far more deadly were the antimatter beam cannons they had developed. They also had antimatter torpedoes but he wanted to hold those in reserve. 

Footsteps approached and a younger man looked over his shoulder. “That looks like one tough hull. What’s the plan sir?”

He glanced at the clock. They had a couple minutes before warp out. “An all out attack with our main cannons. We will need to inflict as much damage as we can before the enemy can raise shields.”

“I see. Any targets in particular.”

He let out a breath, “not really. The ship is really well-designed. Anything truly vital has multiple redundancies and is often located deep in the hull unless that is otherwise not possible. Her main reactors and engines for example are so deep in the hull we can’t touch them.” he paused tapping a few keys to highlight zones. These sections contain modules we can damage, FTL drives, secondary maneuvering drives, and weapon emplacements.”

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He tapped the nacelles, “Why would the precursors put the FTL engines so far from the hull.”

“For the same reason we do. At least in civilian designs. You know how dangerous all that heat can be.”

“Yeah I know it feels like a small star when operating at full output not to mention the radiation, but that’s what good shielding and cooling is for.”

“Yes, military vessels often go all in on that and put it closer to the hull. At the cost of speed, naturally.” he tapped the design, “This ship is clearly built with speed in mind and redundant FTL systems, “They have a smaller backup drive located inside the primary hull as well.”

“I see, where are we shooting then?”

He highlighted several regions, “Right along these armor belts. There are a number of small torpedo magazines underneath them. The main torpedo bays are located too deep into the hull to reliably hit, but we might be able to cause a few secondary detonations if we can penetrate the thick armor in these zones.”

“I’ll inform the gunners and relay the targeting information to the rest of the fleet then.”

He turned to the main screen, putting the data aside. His plan was made, he could only hope it would work. Even if he knew that no amount of surface damage, even if they did get those detonations they wanted would actually cripple that ship. It would just weaken it and help him sink it in a concentrated bombardment. Casualties were likely to be high though.

A moment later they warped out. Almost instantly every alarm on the ship went off and the ship rocked under his feet. As the bridge erupted into a chaotic din. He bellowed a request for a report. As the ship rocked again. A glance at the screens revealed thousands of small lights rippling around the hull. A grid of energy bouncing between them. Suddenly a bolt of blue-green energy arced off the grid and the ship shook, hard.

“Sir! The entire fleet is being swarmed by thousands of small drones. They ambushed us the instant we dropped out of warp and the number is only increasing.”

The ship rocked again, as someone else shouted, “Forward shields failing!”

He cursed. Swarm drones were terribly devious Starlord weapons. He knew of no defense against them. Except destroying them before they could activate. Unfortunately, it was too late, they had already activated. The ship was lost, the fleet was lost, and the drones would slowly choke them to death over the next few minutes. Worse there was no escape and any attempt to fight back would simply hasten their deaths.

---

The young biomech stepped through the gate and looked around. According to Megumi this outpost wasn’t far from an Iniri facility on the surface of Darkur. Darkur was the mineral-rich moon of Nekuri and represented a major industrial world for the Neku people. It was perhaps not surprising then that the Iniri presence here was almost as strong as it was on the homeworld. In fact they maintained a much larger military presence here. 

This facility she was tasked with neutralizing was one of their more remote facilities on the world. It was surrounded by a fence, numerous energy turrets, and protected by a local energy shield. The facility itself was rather large with the main complex and several outlying structures. Preliminary recon indicated a garrison was present to defend the facility, but it wasn’t that large. Given the remote location that wasn’t all that surprising. In any case she felt the whole facility was poorly protected and not even worth the attention of a Knight Class such as herself.

A single scout could likely take out the facility on their own. Sure they had weaker shields and only a single cannon for protection, but they did have one important advantage: their personal cloak. Not to mention the Neku didn’t really have anything that could threaten a scout. As a result a scout could perform well beyond their traditional roles of intel gathering and surgical strikes against high-value targets.

A knight like herself was overkill. She had more weapons and they were generally more powerful, along with enhanced armor, improved regeneration, and powerful shields. Her physical abilities were also quite powerful, even though she wasn’t as nimble as the lighter scout types. Of course she lacked a personal cloaking device, but there were ways around that limitation. While she lacked an internal cloaking device that didn’t prevent her from equipping one.

For this mission she had decided on doing just that. As such she had picked up a suit of powered assault armor, a medium variant to be specific that came standard with a cloaking module instead of a shield generator. The design was favored by Terran Infiltrator units but she had adjusted it for her much smaller frame. She was able to maintain some of the protection it previously offered by removing the amplification systems meant to enhance the wearer. She also made modifications to the arms to make it compatible with her built in weapon modules. As a knight she carried dual plasma blades and two heavy plasma cannons mounted in her arms. Like the scout defense cannons, hers were designed to be dual modal with a hellfire and beam weapons mode. They were just capable of significantly higher energy outputs. While her built-in plasma blades served as excellent close-combat weapons. 

Plasma blades were extremely deadly melee-range weapons that could melt through just about anything and personal shields would not hold up long against them either. Their only real limitations were their short range. An alternative was the Lightning Blade that many Soleans favored. It was not quite as deadly at close range, but it had far greater reach courtesy of its ability to project powerful electric discharges. In addition, it was a rather potent amplifier for psionic energy which made it a useful focus for spellcraft. She didn’t have the ability to use spells nor did she have the organs needed for the high-intensity electric discharges the weapon was named for. So the plasma blades she had were much better for her use.

Mentally she double-checked her systems. Briefly activating them and running a final diagnostic. Any errors could be corrected by her internal repair systems. Not that she expected any and her expectations were proved right. All of her systems were functioning as expected. Done with that, she double checked her gear. Given the parameters she figured having nonlethal options was a good idea and had selected a pistol from the armory that came with a stun setting. Along with that she had stocked up on grenades.

Feeling ready, the young biomech set out from the gate. Moving past the perimeter of the gate compound. Which wasn’t all that large. A single modest building housed the gate and it was surrounded by a low wall. Several weapon emplacements and a shield served to protect the compound. Which was further concealed by a local cloaking field.

She headed out past the modest defenses. They were a sign of how new the place was. Megumi had only started work in the last couple of weeks and only as preparation for the invasion. As such her forces on the moon weren’t as numerous or entrenched as they were on Nekuri itself.

The young biomech didn’t think much on that before making for her destination. It was a short run from her so she would be there before too long. As she left she noted the arrival of several drones. They would be standing by in the area awaiting her signal. Most of them were medical drones, but she also spotted several construction drones. Those other drones were here to add a new processing facility to this outpost. One that would help with undoing the damage the Iniri had done and would also accelerate Megumi’s fix for the Iniri. The redeemable ones anyway.

It was not long before she found the Iniri facility. The guards weren’t in sight like they usually would be. The shield was also up. Obviously the guards had taken shelter inside the facility given the obvious orbital bombardment. As Megumi was firing on targets on both worlds at the moment. Although with her current orbital track, she would leave firing range of Dakur in one hour. Not that the biomech considered that worth much thought. The Iniri were not a peer opponent by any measure. Treating them like one just didn’t make sense and she knew she would not need orbital support for this one. It would just make pacifying the facility faster. If she could disable the shield before that hour was up. Megumi would be able to target the structure with an orbital stun blast.

With that in mind, she did a quick survey of the perimeter. The main entrance into the compound was a sealed blast door and there were a number of combat drones patrolling the perimeter. None of them were all threatening to a Knight in full armor. Especially not one that was cloaked, but she was itching to destroy something.

Smiling, she ignited her plasma blades. An instant later she tore the nearest drone apart. Its personal shield flickered for a moment before the superheated plasma burned through its metal plated body. The internals disintegrated with a single slice of her blade. The tracked combat vehicle was utterly destroyed with the second pass. The others fell in quick succession as she flickered between them with impressive speed.

In just a few minutes the area was clear of drones. She had also wrecked a few turrets while she was at it. Now she turned her attention towards the blast door protecting the entrance. She could use her plasma blades, but instead she focused her wrist cannons at the door. With a thought powerful plasma beams arced towards the door to carve into its armored structure. In moments the slab of metal fell forward with a clang. Providing her a path into the building. Several guards were already in defensive positions. Before they could respond, she tossed a grenade into the corridor.

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